


Christmas at Wayne Manor

by PolygamousSquamous



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Party, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, Other, Wayne Manor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21956641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PolygamousSquamous/pseuds/PolygamousSquamous
Summary: It was a quiet cold December evening in Gotham when three black limousines came one after the other through the gates of Wayne Manor. The cars sped toward the city in tight formation until each peeled away towards its separate location. Each car had a highly trusted and well-paid driver who carried one or several large ornate envelopes.(Bruce and Alfred host an intimate Christmas Party at Wayne Manor to try and reconnect with some old friends)
Kudos: 10





	Christmas at Wayne Manor

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the Gotham Secret Santa for ramblingsofachristiannerd on Tumblr

It was a quiet cold December evening in Gotham when three black limousines came one after the other through the gates of Wayne Manor. The cars sped toward the city in tight formation until each peeled away towards its separate location. Each car had a highly trusted and well-paid driver who carried one or several large ornate envelopes. 

***

"Hey, Jimbo look at this!"

"What is it, Harv?" Commissioner James Gordon looked up from where he sat behind his desk expecting to see Harvey standing there with a new case or a new problem to solve but what he saw instead was the man standing in the door frame with his classic goofy grin on his face and two decorated envelopes in his hands. One was opened and the other he held outstretched for Jim to take.

Jim grabbed it with a cocked eyebrow and read his name on it in an elegant cursive scrawl. He ripped it open without much ceremony causing Harvey to snort a chuckle as he read:

‘Commissioner Gordon,

You and your loved ones are invited to join us at Wayne Manor for the first annual Christmas party tonight. A car waits outside to bring you at your convenience. We do so hope you will join us.

Best regards,

Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth’

“Aw mine just says you are invited!” Harvey exclaimed in Jim’s ear where he had slipped closer to read over his shoulder “Nothing about my loved ones.”

Jim pushed him away playfully a grin of his own beginning to form. “Oh yeah and who exactly are your loved ones?”

“Oh screw you pal! There was a time I would have said you but I guess that just leaves me Lee, Lucius, and Barbara Lee.”

“Leaves us for what?” Lee called as she and Lucius entered the office holding envelopes of their own. 

“I see you all received invitations as well.” Lucius rumbled. Harvey clapped him on the back and tried to get a look at his letter (presumably to see if the wording was the same) but Lucius tucked it out of sight.

“I take it we’re going then?” Lee asked putting her hands on her hips and running her eyes over the boys in a way that made it clear she was not really asking at all. 

Jim sighed and turned back towards his desk at the mountains of paperwork he still had to take care of. “I don’t know. You all should go ahead. I think I --”

Lee slid into his space and placed a single finger on his newly whiskered lips effectively shutting him up. Lucius and Harvey stopped their roughhousing in order to watch the master at work.

“Darling,” She started and Jim already knew he had lost this particular battle. “The paperwork will still be there for you. After Christmas at Barbara’s on Wednesday, I promise I’ll let you come back here and work yourself into a coma. I’ll even bring you boys leftovers so you won’t have to stop for lunch. Bruce and Alfred are inviting us to share a holiday with them, Hell to spend time with them when the city isn’t about to be destroyed for the first time in years!” She paused, removed her finger and stepped back to address the room at large. “Grab your coats, boys, we’re going.”

Harvey and Lucius scrambled for the door snickering all the way. 

“You’re the Boss!” Harvey called over his shoulder causing Jim to roll his eyes and send throw him a not very Christmaslike hand gesture.

Jim then turned and planted a kiss on his wife’s cheek. 

“He’s right you know. You are the boss.” He conceded.

“I know.”

The four of them followed the driver outside and piled into the limousine and the driver directed their attention towards a minibar with hot drinks. 

“You are of course free to help yourself.” He said. 

Harvey scoffed. “I think I want something a little stronger than a hot chocolate.”

“There is coffee in the second thermos.” The driver said eyeing him through the mirror.

“I don’t think that’s what Harvey had in mind,” Jim said elbowing Harvey as they shared a look.

“I see.” the driver replied with a small smile. He reached overhead and flicked a switch and a second minibar rose from the floor stocked with all manner of alcoholic beverages.  
“No way!” Harvey said grabbing a glass bottle with a milky white liquid. “Is this?”

“Eggnog.” The driver replied. “Mister Pennyworth’s own recipe.” 

“God bless that butler!” Harvey proclaimed reaching for a glass.” 

As they pulled off Lee helped herself to hot cocoa, Lucius to some apple cider and Jim to a coffee. He smiled looking around at his best friends and thinking this might just be a lot of fun. 

***

Barbara Kean heard a knock at the door just as she and Barabara Lee were putting the last tray of cookies into the oven. She looked at the clock not really expecting anyone but she knew that the doorman would not let just anybody up. She paid them too well for that and it was one of her buildings after all.

She told Barbara Lee to set a timer for the cookies and went to go see who the hell was interrupting Mommy-Daughter-Cookie-Night so she could tell them to piss off.

She looked through the peephole and saw a man in a chauffeur’s uniform. He didn’t seem to have anything but an envelope but you couldn’t be too careful and the habits of her many past lives died hard. 

She pressed the button next to the door for her intercom and spoke: “Who sent you and what do you want?” 

Chauffeur man startled a bit at her voice and then looked skyward at the speaker as he answered which always made Barabara smile just a bit when people did it.

“Hello. Mister Wayne sent me to deliver an invitation.”

Barabara swung the door open and plucked the envelope from his lax hand in one swift movement. With another, she pursed her lips at him and used one perfectly manicured pinky nail to split it open. She read the contents, eyes skimming every word quickly. Once she was done she looked at the man before her, back at the kitchen where the cookies and Barbara Lee were and finally down at herself and the house slippers and long sweater she was currently sporting.

She thrust the letter back into his hands and as he fumbled it she grabbed hold of the door once more. 

“We’ll be down in 30 minutes.” She clipped slamming the door in his face and heading back to the kitchen.

“Barbara Lee, baby! Change of plans. You and mommy have gotta get dressed while the cookies are finishing because we’ve just been invited to a party!”

“A party!” she squealed launching herself from her chair and sliding on socked feet across the kitchen tiles and into her mother’s waiting arms. “Can we take the cookies with us?”

“Of course we can pumpkin,” Barbara said giving her a quick squeeze before turning her in the direction of her bedroom and turning her loose to run off and change. “Why don’t you put on that pretty red dress Lee bought you and by the time you’re finished they should be ready.”

In precisely 30 minutes Barabara Kean with a form-fitting sweater dress, freshly styled red curls, a plate full of warm cookies and an extremely excited 11-year-old exited the front door of her building and slid gracefully into a limousine that would take them towards Wayne Manor.

***

The first to arrive was the crew from the GCPD they were greeted by Bruce and Alfred as they stepped out at the door and shown inside to find Wayne Manor transformed. No more showing the signs of neglect and disuse everything was perfectly polished and there were signs of Christmas everywhere with garlands, and holly, and candles giving each room a warm cozy glow. When asked who had done all of the cleaning and decorating Alfred had only shrugged and replied with. “What can I say? I just love Christmas.”

Shortly after they made their way to the sitting room the front bell rang and they were joined by Barbara and Barbara Lee whose cookies were a huge hit especially with Harvey who claimed they ‘paired nicely’ with the bottle of eggnog he’d taken from their limousine. They all sat around the fire sharing stories and in Harvey’s case sometimes oversharing what was strictly appropriate for the little ears present. There were plenty of hot drinks and eggnogs passed around and easy laughter filled the room almost seeming to make it swell.

Barbara Lee sat between her two namesakes on one couch while Jim and Harvey took up another. Lucius and Alfred had two chairs they partially occupied as they split their time walking back and forth to the kitchen to check the dishes that’s smells started to waft throughout the house with the promise of a good meal to come. The group’s host, Bruce, sat a bit removed from the others in an armchair closest to the fire. He didn’t add much to the conversation, just a bit of dry wit here and there or a contribution to a story in which he was featured. He was far from discontent though. Everyone could see how at ease he felt and how secretly pleased he was by his loud and rowdy company. 

A little while into the night’s festivities the doorbell rang again and this time Bruce himself rose from his chair and excused himself to go check it. When he slipped quietly back into the room alone and back into his chair by the fire during one of Harvey and Jim’s crazy stories where they got kidnapped, Barabara and Lee were the only ones who noticed the way Bruce’s smile had faded and the reassuring hand to his back that Alfred offered when he next entered the room and saw that no new members had been added to the group.

Soon after they all changed locations and gathered around the table, Bruce stood to offer a toast.

“First I want to thank you all for coming, especially given the late notice and the unconventional method of invitation.” There were a few chuckles at that and Bruce’s smile returned but this time everyone could see the sadness around his eyes as he continued. “I know that many of us have suffered a great deal of loss in our time in Gotham and that sometimes a loss can make something like celebrating a holiday really hard.” He cast his eyes around the dining room, his parent’s dining room, where a million years ago he had shared very different holiday dinners. The others cast their eyes down some out of respect and others thinking of their own past Christmases. “I have spent a lot of my life pushing the people that I love away from me in order to protect them but tonight was meant to be a gathering and a celebration of the people in my life who I can count on and the people who have continued to come back. We here sitting around this table have been through a lot together even the end of the world on a number of occasions. Tonight is my way of thanking you all for that because as much as it pains me to say it… I can’t do it all. I cannot bear the weight of the world on my shoulders alone.”

“And you’ll never have to,” Jim said looking around the table. There were some nods in agreement and few ‘Hear Hears!’ as everyone raised their glasses and drank. 

***

Once they ate their fill of Alfred’s delicious meal and little eyes started to droop with fatigue they began to part ways for the night. More limousines were brought around to drop all of them off at their separate locations. Just as everyone else was filing out Barbara straightened up and turned to Alfred.

“Can you get Barbara Lee all set up in the car? I just realized I must have left my purse in the sitting room?”

He took Barbara Lee’s hand in his and started out into the foyer. After a second’s hesitation, he turned back and said to her, “I was rather hoping you would talk to her. After all, you know her best.” 

Barbara paused and looked back meeting his knowing gaze with a sad smile of her own. “I’m not so sure I do anymore.”

She went back to the sitting room and scooped up her purse from exactly where she knew she left it before turning and facing the window.

“You can come in now. It’s just me and I know you’ve been there all night.”

She stood there waiting for a ten-second eternity before sighing in disappointment as only a mother can and turning to go.

It was then that she heard the window open and turned just in time to see a beautiful young woman dressed in all black with a head full of curly hair slide in and land soundlessly in a crouch on the floor. 

They stared at each other as the young woman spoke. 

“The security here still sucks.”

“Are you sure about that Kitty Kat?” Barbara said with a smile, “If you think I’m the only one who noticed you here tonight then you are sorely mistaken.”

The young woman stood scoffing defensively but Barabara raised her hands in a placating gesture.

“It’s always good to see you, Selina.”

“Yeah, yeah. Merry freaking Christmas and all that.” She crossed her arms leaning back against the windowsill. “So what Babs? Did you come back here just to tell me I’m a lousy thief?”

Barbara let out a small laugh, a tinkling teasing thing that turned her back from a mother to an older sister in an instant. “No, I think we both know you didn’t crash Bruce’s little party in order to case this joint. Just like we both know that you could've had a place inside if you wanted to.”

Selina looked away at that her voice coming out small in a way that surprised herself. “I don’t think I would have belonged anyways.”

“I don’t think Bruce sees it that way at all. Why else would he have invited you.”

“I don’t know I-”

“Selina." Barbara said a sense of finality creeping into her voice that she may or may not have picked up from hanging around Lee Thompkins. "I’ve seen you and that young man grow up together. Hell I even helped raise you myself. Those things he said in there weren’t just for us, you know, they were for you too. He needs you just like you need him”

Selina turned, hand on the sill, ready to disappear back into the night. 

Barbara didn’t move to try to stop her but instead began to back towards the door herself “Well, hey. I’ve gotta go put the kiddo to sleep but you should talk to him Selina. It wouldn’t be so bad to show him you care too every once in a while, Afterall it is ‘freaking Christmas’.” she said, parroting Selina’s phrase back at her. “See ya around Kitty Kat.”

By the time Selina turned to offer a retort Barbara was already gone. 

Once Selina realized she was alone it was her turn to let out a sigh. She turned back to the window but this time instead of exiting she closed it behind herself. She settled into the couch picking up a plate of leftover cookies and helping herself to one before calling out. 

“Hello? Bruce. I’m here now. Merry Christmas you jerk.”

The answer, per usual, managed to somehow come from behind her in an all too familiar voice that was just a bit lower and more gravelly than she rembered but it made her break into her first full smile in a long time.

"Who are you calling a jerk?"

fin

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays!


End file.
